In memory of Marcia J. Powell and all those prisoners who have suffered or died in the custody of the state.

The 'Friends of Marcia Powell' are autonomous groups and individuals engaging in prisoner outreach, informal advocacy, and organized protest and direct actions in a sustained campaign to: promote prisoner rights and welfare in America; engage the Arizona public in a creative and thoughtful critique of our system of "justice;” deconstruct the prison industrial complex; and dismantle this racist, classist patriarchy...

Retiring "Free Marcia Powell"

As of December 2, 2010 (with occasional exceptions) I'm retiring this blog to direct more of my time and energy into prisoner rights and my other blogs; I just can't do anyone justice when spread so thin. I'll keep the site open so folks can search the archives and use the links, but won't be updating it with new posts. If you're looking for the latest, try Arizona Prison Watch. Most of the pieces posted here were cross-posted to one or both of those sites already.

Thanks for visiting. Peace out - Peg.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Women's Resistance: Smoke Signals in the Desert

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Three inmates set their mattresses on fire at the Perryville prison complex Saturday. All at the same time.

That's usually a distress call, which should be taken fairly seriously since the women who organized it and carried it out are going to face severe disciplinary consequences and most likely additional criminal charges.

Things must be pretty bad out there.

I've been told that women have been afraid of dying in those cages in the sun; that heat emergencies weren't that uncommon. I wonder if the fires had to do with re-instituting use of the cages on Friday, or if something we haven't heard about yet is going on.

They were at Lumley, the maximum security facility where Marcia died.

If anyone has any way of getting word in, let the women know someone hears them, and that they have to keep talking and showing solidarity. They aren't alone. There are people out here pounding down the Governor's door to get outside investigators in there to find out what's going on. There are good people on the inside, too - I hope - who will put it on the line when the time comes.

There's talk of prisoners' rights and "Marcia's Law", plans for protests and demonstrations against the cages. We've lobbied our legislators not to privatize or cut critical services for state prisoners, and to expand community-based alternatives to incarceration.

But I don't know if that means that anything will really change, except that a few more radical women get thrown into a hole. I do know things would be a lot worse if no one ever took the chance to push for it to happen, and that it takes a lot more courage and creativity to do that from behind bars than from a laptop...

I wish I could be certain that those women were okay.

Know this: There are thousands of people across the country organizing for your rights, for your safety, for your freedom - recognizing that our rights, our safety, and our freedom are joined with yours. Feminists, anarchists, current and former prisoners, pacifists, HIV/AIDS advocates, families of prisoners, global justice activists, anti-racists, the faithful of many creeds, and even the damn-near-hopeless are all working on this. Now that I'm looking, abolitionists seem to be everywhere.

We know you are not safe. We know some of you have grown very ill. We know that health care is inadequate, that facilities are over-crowded, that food is on the cheap and getting worse, that punishments often exceed the severity of the crime, and that the whole system is racist and classist and entrenched in self-righteous patriarchy. We know that homophobes and bigots often lurk below the radar, and that given the power - which too often comes with a badge and a gun - will turn their hate into your extra charges and time.

And I'm sorry to say that we've known this for a long while, and that we've still got a way to go.

That means some things may not change soon enough. Just don't give up on yourselves or each other. I'd also like to say don't stop talking to us; each woman needs to weigh carefully the risk. Prisoner activists take a lot of heat. Some really get burned. It may be hard to tell what you're getting into, so know what you're willing - maximally - to lose.

Choose your battles - and your "weapons" - carefully. Lay low if your intuition tells you to do so. If you must resist, non-violence is always the best way to go. If you have the privileges, ability, and desire to make your voice heard, I'll do whatever is in my power to amplify it. Others will stand where we fall. Discover the soft power of resistance through the arts, poetry and prose - that can be the most effective path to the hearts of the people who end up getting a vote in what happens to you. Some of the most powerful liberation movement works I've ever read were written by prisoners and former slaves. We get nowhere unless we lift as we climb; our fates are intertwined.

AZ Police State

STOP FASCISM HERE!!! FIGHT SB 1070!

We Are Everywhere...

Decided to plant this in here with a widget as a permanent reminder to those out there struggling through life that we need you here. All the injustice, grief, and human suffering calls for us to stay and do everything we can about it while we're here. Don't give up the fight - your last shred of hope may just keep someone else alive, too.

Survival Guide for Earth Liberation Activists

Street Arts & Buskers Advocates

ON DIRECT ACTIONS, CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, ETC.

Taking a cue from the animal rights activists (who usually don't even put their names and faces on their sites), I thought I should clarify a few things here.

The Friends of Marcia Powell and freemarciapowell.blogspot.com are not very organized, nor are we affiliated or associated with any other group or organization. We all just crash each other's protests to show solidarity. Me (Peg) - I'm just winging this stuff.

The information and ideas provided on this website are not meant to incite illegal actions or activities, even if it looks like that may be what we're doing. That's not to say we frown on civil disobedience; there's an important place in history for diverse tactics of resistance. We are each only responsible for our own actions, though.

The point is for folks to get involved in the 2010 political campaigns and challenge the BS around the prison industrial complex, but please be creative enough that no one gets hurt or arrested (well, a few lawmen and makers need to be indicted and disarmed, still, but we don't want any more of our friends getting into trouble.)

Do be advised: these are not nice people we're picking fights with, they far outgun us, they make all the rules, the game is already rigged, and if you piss the wrong person off bad enough in this state, you don't even need to break a law to go to jail or prison.

In any case, make sure you have the number you'll need to call for help from jail written on your arm if you think you might get arrested. Live on the buddy system (keep an eye on each other for awhile and check the jail if anyone goes missing). Don't let things you're responsible for drag anyone else down; keep your loose ends neat.

Don't rat out your comrades, and don't automatically believe it if someone says that someone you trust ratted out you first. That's a classic tactic. So is trying to make you think that something perfectly legal you did is a crime. Just because it's secret doesn't mean it's criminal or shouldn't be protected.

Be true to yourself and the cause regardless.

If you have any questions about the legality of any direct action you are considering, we encourage everyone receiving this (or the) action alert(s) to check your local laws and ordinances and think about the possible consequences before proceeding to do anything. Not that you'd be on your own, but most of us are too poor to bail you out, and too politically disenfranchised to otherwise wrest you free.

July 29, 2010. Cesar Chavez Plaza/Wells Fargo, Phoenix.

Advocacy for women in Florida prisons

American Civil Liberties Union

National Prison Project Report

Mental Illness In Prison

Ill-Equipped: US Prisoners and Offenders with Mental Illness

Death by Incarceration

US DOJ Bureau of Justice Statistics: 2001-2006 Prison Deaths (pdf)

Gerlad & Maas' Nights Lantern

Excellent resource by our neighbors to the North on Human Rights, Political Prisoners, and the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.